MINUTES

Feather River Coordinated Resource Management Group

Management Committee Meeting

 

Reasonable Accommodations: In compliance with the Americans with Disabilities Act, if you need special assistance to participate in this meeting please contact the Feather River Coordinated Resource Management Watershed Coordinator at (530) 283-3739.

 

REMINDER:  Revegetation Sub-Committee Meeting, March 7th, 9am @ Plumas Corporation office

 

Date:  Monday, May 7, 2007

Time:  1:00 pm

Location:  Plumas Corporation Office

Members:  Chair- Joe Hoffman   

            Vice Chair- Todd Hillaire 

            Project & Design Chair – Barb Drake, Absent

            Finance Chair– Dennis Heiman, Absent

            Monitoring Chair– Kevin Pond

            Others-Dan Martynn, John Kolb, Mark Steffek; Holly George, Fraser Sime- Absent

Staff:   Jim Wilcox, Leslie Mink, Gia Martynn, Jessica Albietz; Terry Benoit- Absent

Others present: John Hafen, Phil Noia

  1. Review/Approve minutes from March 2007 meeting; Review/Approve May ‘07 Agenda

Minutes approved.  Agenda revised- added DWR Fish Monitoring -all approved.

 

  1. Committee Reports

Finance- Dennis Heiman

    1. Prop. 50 news- County received award of $7mil (70% of request); currently reconfiguring the package to meet awarded amount.  Hope to have a signed contract in June.  Brian Morris has been assigned the new director for the Co. Flood Control District and is working out the detail of the contract with the state.  Last Chance II project will get NEPA and CEQA ready and implement 50% with awarded funds, and backfill funds to complete the rest.  CRM may also assist the Quincy Community Service District with their Prop 50 project.

Plumas Corporation and the County applied for $186K for a Prop 50 Parkway grant to establish a trail along Spanish Creek at Gansner Park   State came out and toured the site on May 3rd.  Award date is end of June.  Also applied for an acquisition grant to connect the trail upstream to Lover’s Leap and provide access to Spanish Creek above Hwy 70.  This proposal was not successful.  Plan to apply for an Urban Streams-Prop 84 grant for Spanish Creek rehabilitation projects and gravel management, RFP scheduled for Fall 2007- could possibly partner that proposal with an acquisition request.

    1. Title III – Submitted proposals were $40K for Carbon monitoring; $14,500 for Reveg and greenhouse; $23K for Greenhorn Crk. project development.  Board of Supes will be holding a public hearing in June to review proposals.  Earliest awards will be July.  $40K more than available funds were applied for.  The carbon proposal is to develop a protocol and measure sequestration change in meadows from degraded to restored; working with Univ. of Nevada, Reno to quantify.  Title III funding would pay for equipment, lab costs, and time, with supplemental funding from Prop 50 monitoring funds.  Projects that would be monitored for carbon include- Big Flat, Clarks, Red Clover, Last Chance II, and Red Clover-Dotta.  Hafen asked if we would measure in grazed versus ungrazed areas?  All projects have a 3-5 year no grazing recovery period.  Majority of carbon is stored in the soil and roots, not the veg.  BOS is looking at the FRLT Heart K ranch for a carbon forestry pilot project. 
    2. Washington Tour- Toured the watershed with USFS Washington personnel to discuss a QLG-like proposal submitted by the County and Plumas NF to assess non-commodity values (ie. sediment reduction, reduced water temperatures, flood attenuation, timing of flows, carbon sequestration, etc.) and how to create a revenue source from the beneficiaries of those values (ie. PG&E, State Contractors, etc.).  Action items resulting from tour are to develop a menu of projects that deliver those values, create a fiscal mechanism to receive receipts, and a strategy to implement.  Jim Pena, former PNF FS, is now at the Regional Office as deputy of State and Private forestry.  At the tour he made it clear that the RO is ready to make water a priority. 

State perspective- SWP 160, State Water Planning Strategy final to be completed in 2009 is seeking regional and agency input for recommendations to legislative actions to fund future bonds and other funding sources for watershed management. 

 

     3.    Project Updates-

a.       Reveg Sub-Committee mtg report- USFS got $5K grant for greenhouse at FRC; many folks are showing an interest in use of the greenhouse, need to coordinate needs.  The original intent of the RAC grant for the GH was to establish a self-sustaining community resource.  Would like to establish priority species the GH would be used for.  The CRM submitted a proposal to the Feather River RCD for the purchase of a seed stripper.  John Hafen of Trout Unlimited stated they could possibly fund re-vegetation equip needs, just need to submit a proposal.  Derek Lerch is new teacher at FRC instructing Watershed Restoration class next fall, wants to get students out on the ground to help and learn.  Jessica got a box of donations from Patagonia to give to volunteers as incentive/thank-you.  . 

b.       Little Last Chance (DWR hydraulics report, etc)- Caltrans is requiring an encroachment permit and needs a hydraulics report from DWR in order to issue the permit that addresses flood issues downstream of Hwy.  Must be completed by July due to budget carryover into FY07-08. Construction contract IFB out on May 9th.  NEPA document completed, 30-day public comment period ends mid-June, then 45-day appeal period.  Construction planned for Oct and Nov.

c.       Permit app status on Dixie, Smith, and Raap-Guidici- Received the 401 on Dixie and LLC; and F&G permit on Dixie and Raap-Guidici.

d.       Long Valley and Meadow Valley- Jim is project mgr. on Long Valley, due to postponement of Last Chance II and Terry’s growing project list.  Enviro surveys, flagging and GPS design all currently being done on LV; will complete CEQA and submit permit apps in Fall 07; project is primarily funded by RAC with some Prop 40 $$.  Meadow Valley enviro survey contracts just finalized; same timeline as LV.      

e.       Ferris Fields and Dixie- Construction and fence contracts out.  Const. bids close May 18th; Fence tour May 16th, bid closes June 1st. Ferris construction scheduled July 23rd. If Jim doesn’t go down to the Sequoia, may bump up schedule for Dixie Creek. 

f.        Spanish Creek public strategy meeting- Public meeting held on March 12th; had about four landowners, QCSD, and FRLT attended.  Terry has met with Jesse Segura (ranch mgr. for Danny Leonhardt) to look at gravel mgt. site.  Jim has met with Dave Simms (LO upstream of the old aggregate plant).  Simms property is in an upward trend- beavers present, lots of willow and alders present, channel narrowing.  McMorrow owns from top of aggregate plant to Slate Creek.  All landowners are willing, next step will apply to Urban Streams for a grant in the fall.

Terry has also met with Jerry Watson out of Chester on gravel mining (has been working in MV). 

g.       Poplar Creek- Plan to repair headcut at bottom of project and rebuild grade control structure with supplemental RAC funds and reprogrammed Prop 40 money.  Headcut upstream needs help, but need to stabilize xing first.  Beavers are gone.  Soper-Wheeler is LO.  Need active buy-in from LO.  Possible funding for upper Poplar SNC or potential easement with FRLT; Ecosystem Services potential. 

h.       DePaoli/Seeliger project on Sulphur Creek- vane treatment with reprogrammed Prop. 40 $$; landowner is willing to pay for enviro survey work; survey bids currently out.  Still need to work with Ward to fence off opposite side of creek, to keep cattle off treated area.  Temporary electric fencing alternative.

i.         Red Clover post-project power point presentation- Jim gave ppt of before and after photos on Red Clover.  Over .25 million yards of material was moved on this project.  Plan to get post-project aerial photos of project in June.  Infrared photos were taken pre-project in June and August of 2005.  John Kolb asked if we had looked into Lidar.  County is looking at acquiring for each community, rotate new photo every 10 years. $12-15K to map an area the size of Quincy.  John will send link to Jim.  May want to collaborate with USFS to get for LC II.

 

4.          Monitoring- Kevin Pond

a.       Indian Creek Modeling update- modeling from headwaters to Greenville Y, an extension of the Last Chance model, doesn’t include nutrients but has added temperature as a new component.  CRM will be doing data collection on flows, sediment, and temperature. Funded by Prop 50-CalFed Science Program.  Prop 50-IRWM is funding the Middle Fork modeling project from Sierra Valley to Grizzly Creek.

b.       Macroinvertebrate sampling- If we use SWQCB funds, must be SWAMP compliant.  Lab costs $200-450/sample.  DWR sends samples to Chico State Foundation.  Past CRM work has sent to lab in Utah.  DWR may be able to collect samples- need to add to wish list.  USFS protocol, Jessica will attend training on Lassen NF.  Making it exclusive, the state is losing 10 years of USFS SCI data.  Wolf Creek is the only project we currently have before and after macro data on.  DWR did collect pre-project samples on Red Clover, Last Chance @ Doyle crossing and Jordan.  Could collect and preserve until funding is available.  

c.       Monitoring Committee Mtg.-Report will soon be available on website.  Mtg will be held in conjunction with Steering Committee meeting on June 6th, 9am, at the Plumas Corp. office./ Steering Committee meeting will start at 1pm at the Quincy Library. 

d.       Fish Monitoring DWR- relocation on Ferris; just got LC final macro data; Red Clover pre-project data. 

 

5.          RCD Updates- FRRCD update by Phil Noia, RCD Board President.  No longer have any staff.  Currently have some grant apps out and partnering with Sierra Valley RCD for F&G monies.  Have some $$ for CalTrans mitigation site in Crescent Mills.  Currently working with County to expand the wetland site through a property swap with Bengard.  May apply for DOC grant.  Forum funds are gone.  Next meeting is on Thursday, May 10th.  NRCS State Conservationist will be visiting soon.  No update from SVRCD.

 

6.          Other: FRCRM Education update- DWR grant completed, final report sent in April.  No more funding for school-based program.  Waiting on RAC agreement for outreach and citizen monitoring.  Watershed map should be completed by June.  #1 choice for tagline: “Clean Water Starts Here”

 

 

Upcoming Dates:  Stormdrain Stenciling Event in Quincy May 19th;  Steering and Monitoring Committee Meeting and Tours, June 6-7th;  Spanish Creek Watershed Tour, June 5th –postponed until November 2007